May God hear us

Psalm 120:1 NIV

1 I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me.

The Psalmist prays to God to deliver him from the mischief designed him by false and malicious tongues.

If you have had time to watch the political debates that have been taking place; you would have heard many false and malicious words. It just seems people can’t win on their own integrity so they lambast the integrity of their opponents.

At times they use half-truths. For instance Ben Carson took time to return to Florida and rest and repack for the next set of debates and town halls. One of the TV networks said Ben Carson had dropped out of the race and those words got passed to a competitor politician who repeated them.

As people of God we need to be delivered from false and malicious tongues. We need people who can tell the truth at all cost. We need people with integrity and honor that remember God’s word and keep it holy.

Let us pray as a nation that God will deliver us from the mischief designed by Satan who uses false and malicious words to mislead us. May The Lord hear us and deliver us from our distress.

Count on Jesus

1 John 4:9 (NIV)

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

God commandeth his love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Many years ago, in my first pastorate, I met with a teenage girl in our congregation. She was about sixteen at the time, and she was discouraged and becoming depressed. I tried to encourage her, but there was a revelatory moment when she said, "Yes, I know Jesus loves me, he saved me, he's going to take me to heaven—but what good is it when no boy at school will even look at me?"

She said she "knew" all these truths about being a Christian, but they were of no comfort to her. The attention (or the lack of it) of a cute boy at school was far more consoling, energizing, and foundational for her joy and self-worth than the love of Christ. Of course this was a perfectly normal response for a teenage girl. Nevertheless it was revealing of how our hearts work. [Jonathan] Edwards would say that she had the opinion that Jesus loved her, but she didn't really know it. Christ's love was an abstract concept while the love of these others was real to her heart.

[Timothy Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism (Viking, 2015), page 163.]

Many of us may be looking for someone to love us, someone to fill the empty spot inside of us, someone we know we can turn to in a crisis. Let me clearly state there is only one who can fill every need you have and that person is Jesus Christ. Jesus died for you, for me and for the world that we would live eternal life through him. Know that when you can’t count on someone else, you can count on Jesus.

Love your neighbor

Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.

Christ extended the commandment of Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould and with all your mind to include loving your neighbor as yourself.

Charles Colson tells the following story about his home town of Naples, Florida, which he calls "one of the garden spots of the world."

It's an absolute nirvana for all golfers, and they all come there. They're all CEOs of major corporations, and they retire to Naples, and this is "it"—twenty-seven golf courses and miles of sparkling beach and the best country clubs. I watch these guys; they're powerful people. They have this New York look on their face; they're determined. But now, all of a sudden, they start measuring their lives by how many golf games they can get in.

I often say to them, "Do you really want to live your life counting up the number of times you chase that little white ball around those greens?" And they kind of chuckle, but it's a nervous chuckle, because in six months they've realized how banal their lives are, and they've got beautiful homes—castles—and when they get bored with that, they build a bigger castle, and they're miserable. The object of life is not what we think it is, which is to achieve money, power, pleasure. That's not the holy grail. The object of life is the maturing of the soul, and you reflect that maturing of the soul when you care more for other people than yourself.

[Eric Metaxas, Socrates in the City (Dutton, 2011), pp. 172-3]

Love your neighbor as yourself and you will find many blessing you did not realize that could exist.

Perfect Love

1 John 4:18 (NIV)

18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Love considers God as most eminently good, and most eminently loving us in Christ, and so puts off dread, and puts on joy in him; and, as love grows, joy grows too; so that perfect love casteth out fear or dread. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

The Huffington Post ran a beautiful story about a church in Honolulu called Bluewater Mission. This small church started a restaurant called Seed, which gives people a second chance at work and at life. The article focused on a woman named Mary Nelson, who started working at Seed last year. It was only the second job the 53-year-old had ever had. At the age of 14, Nelson's mother committed suicide and she started working on the streets of New York City as a prostitute. At the age of 18 she tried to start a new life in Hawaii but she kept working as a prostitute.

Then when she was in her early 50s some Christians at Bluewater Mission persuaded her to leave the streets and try working at Seed. She spent the first six months washing dishes because she wanted to be far away from what she called, the "good people." But after a lot of hard work and love from the people at church Nelsons says, "I get to be the person I was never able to be. I get to help people without someone trying to take advantage of me."

Nelson noted that what she makes in a month at Seed, she used to make in one night on the streets. She had it all: new cars, jewelry, travel, nice condos—though, sometimes, beatings, rape and "so much horror" came with the price. "You can't buy what I'm going through right now," she says. "I never thought that I'd be this person I am now."

Recently, Nelson went with her church on a trip to the Philippines to reach out to prostitutes. She told the reporter, "I want those women to know there's hope. You can change. There are people out there that really want to help and you've got to … believe. Just like you went out there and took a chance on the streets, you've got to take a chance on this as well."

[Adapted from Carla Herreria, "Restaurant In Hawaii Offers Fresh Start For Former Prostitutes, Convicts, Others Who Need A Hand," The Huffington Post (2-28-15)]

Mary Nelson found love in the people who helped her change her life. At first she was fearful that others would judge her or be take advantage of her. Mary then found there was no fear in love; for those around her loved her as God intended.

Love

1 John 4:11-12 (NIV)

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

The example of God should press us. We should be followers (or imitators) of him, as his dear children. The objects of the divine love should be the objects of ours. Shall we refuse to love those whom the eternal God hath loved? [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Sanderson Jones, a former stand-up comedian who leads the Sunday Assembly—also known as the "atheist church"—spent Sunday attending three London churches and tweeting about his experience. His observations are surprising and an encouraging reminder for all churches. "I think churches should recognize that they are already doing so much right," Jones says, referring to the idea of having people welcoming on the front door, and people knowing where and when to set up for coffee after church. "I went to the American Humanist Association and they had a special lecture on why it's important to be welcoming. It's just the most basic things which you'll take for granted in 'Churchland,' which are in fact really powerful."  [Lucinda Borkett-Jones, "A well-known atheist visited three churches in one day and this is what he made of it," Christian Today (3-30-15)]

Love can be spread in many ways. It can be helping someone through a difficult time. I can be a friendly smile. Love can be shown in the purchase of a cup of coffee. There are so many way to love those who do not know the love of God. Start loving others so they know the love of God that is in us.

Waiting to understand

Proverbs 18:17 (NIV)

17 In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.

This shows that one tale is good till another is told and then the truth can be weighted.

Anson Hui is eleven-years-old. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD), meaning his body can't break down or store sugars. He requires frequent daytime feedings (drinking raw cornstarch), and nighttime feedings through a pump that hooks into a surgically implanted tube to his stomach. At the age of five, he experienced developmental delays that doctors feared were connected to autism. At that point in his life, he couldn't speak sentences with more than three syllables. He also became a target for school-yard bullies. No wonder that Anson often asked, "Why did God put me here?"

However, Anson also discovered that he had a gift. He said, "While everyone else was busy talking, I listened and listened to all the sounds around me." His listening skills helped him develop another gift—perfect or absolute pitch. Anson discovered that he could memorize and then master complex piano pieces (such as Mozart's Concerto in D Minor) with astounding speed and proficiency. Anson has won numerous awards and even performed in Carnegie Hall. Anson's trials and his gifts have led him to declare his deep faith in the living God: "I can't decide many things that God has already planned, but I can still choose to work on my dream because I still have workable hands and a body to do it. I believe every single life is unique and special. Each has its own mission and purpose."

About a year ago he received more difficult news. An MRI revealed a benign tumor around his liver, which could lead to a liver transplant, a tricky procedure for any GSD patient. But once again, Anson finds solace in God's faithfulness. In a recent interview Anson said,

I know [there's] always a reason for God to give me a special body and talent. My dream is to be a tool of God … so in the end, I can hand in a beautiful [report] to my Lord in heaven with honor. And the most important thing is—I will never regret this journey on earth. [Julie Jordan, "Music as the No.1 Medicine (Part 2)," The Epoch Times (10-14-10)]

At age three Anson Hui was basically given a death sentence. Yet he continued to live and has faced many more obstacles. He continues to play the piano delighting those who hear. What if the writer had stopped at the first paragraph, we may have assumed the worst. Yet reading on we find Anson praising God for continuing to do miraculous things.

The silent and still prayer

Exodus 14:14 (NIV)

14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

The Israelites were leaving their Egyptian captors. They had reached the sea and could see their captors coming for them. Their worries were now magnified and they could only think of the work ahead of them. But Moses reminded them they would only need to be still as The Lord fought for them.

God

Grant me to be

silent before you--

that I may hear you;

at rest in you--

that you may work in me;

open to you--

that you may enter;

empty before you--

that you may fill me.

Let me be still

And know you are my God.

Amen.

[Sir Paul Reeves in a prayer at the WCC Seventh Assembly in Canberra, Australia. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 11.}

Let us be still and allow God to work in our lives. Let this prayer be one that we incorporate into ours so that we may be at peace with others.